Jennies a real Jewel in T A Morris

Jennies Jewel #8217;s three previous wins were all gained with plenty of cut in the ground, and she seemed to relish the testing conditions at Clonmel to land the Grade 3 EBF T A Morris Memorial Mares Chase. Pollywollydoodle set a strong pace on the heavy ground in this 2m4f event, with Jennies Jewel one of the few to keep in touch.

Ian McCarthy sent her to the front before two out, and the Jarlath Fahey-trained mare stayed on strongly to beat the front-runner by four and a half lengths. Our Katie blundered at the last and lost third place close home to Elsie

The Nicky Henderson-trained Une Artiste dropped out after a mistake at the sixth last, and the 9/4 favourite was pulled up before the straight.

Fahey said, "That was a very good performance and she has more than earned her Graded win. She had a lovely run here first time over fences recently and we did plenty of schooling with her since. Ian gave her a brilliant ride.

"Originally we were only toying with the idea of briefly going chasing with her as she is a valuable mare but we'll have to rethink that now and could run in those Mares' Chases.

"There is also the possibility she could go back for the Tara Handicap Hurdle (at Navan) next month too."

(TW & AM)